


When a Wizard Turns Everyone into Eldritch Abominations

by MalisonQuill



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Bromance, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossfaction, Everyone is a monster, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Monsters, Tentaspy, Transformation, Unicorns, Vampires, Were-Creatures, Zombie, mild body horror, there's more monsters too but they're a surprise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-28 11:52:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6327787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalisonQuill/pseuds/MalisonQuill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merasmus is tired of the Soldiers' bad habits and decides to exact his revenge. And he doesn't care who gets in his way...</p>
<p>Things start to get odd around both the RED and BLU bases and before long, everyone notices how all the weird little changes are adding up to something big. </p>
<p>The question is, can things to go back to the way they were? Does everyone really want things to go back to the way they were?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Merasmus the Masochist

In hindsight, Merasmus should have kicked out the RED Soldier long ago. His constant ‘borrowing’ of Merasmus’ many ancient artefacts and more mundane possessions would have been enough to warrant that.

Yet for some reason he decided to keep the Soldier around. Maybe he was worried about being lonely, or maybe a small part of him was amused by the man’s antics despite the infuriation it caused him. However, just when Merasmus thought his problems couldn’t possibly get any worse; they doubled.

 

“WHY IS THERE A FAMILY OF RACCOONS IN MY POTIONS CABINET!? AND HOW ON EARTH DID THEY GET INTO MY _LOCKED_ MEDICINE CUPBOARD!?”

Merasmus burst into kitchen, screaming at both the human and raccoon occupants who sat at the table eating breakfast.

“Merasmus, you _know_ how Lieutenant Bites likes to secure the compound. He and his squad takes it upon themselves to make sure every nook and cranny is entirely safe.”

Merasmus stared cold and hard at the Soldier. His left eye (which had already been twitching on and off every day for the past 2 weeks) began to flare up and spasm with full force.

“Besides, it wasn’t the raccoons that got into your Medicine Cabinet. He did it.” The RED Soldier gestured to the only other human sitting at the table, who was currently cooing over the small raccoon cub in his hands. He looked up and stared at the RED in confusion before turning to face Merasmus, his expression hidden behind the brim of a helmet.

“I was looking for your heart medicine.”

Merasmus felt like screaming. He felt like letting his soul leave his body so he could rain down a wild storm of retribution on his idiotic roommates.

Living with the one Soldier had been bad enough, but now Merasmus had to deal with _two_ of them. He cared little about Soldier’s mercenary work, and when he did it was only so he could use the mercs to help with his schemes of collecting souls or bodies to fuel his eldritch idols. But of the little that got through to him when Soldier was on one of his rants about the war, there was one thing that was clear: BLU and RED were enemies, and there was _no_ allowance for fraternisation. Which only begged the question, why did Soldier bring his enemy counterpart to live with them in the first place?

“You wanted my-!?” Merasmus sighed heavily. There was no use, no voice of sane reason with Soldier- with _either_ Soldier. He couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to simply get rid of them (and their unruly brood of raccoons) but he knew that wouldn’t be enough. No matter what, it seemed as though he could never be rid of Soldier. So, that left Merasmus with only one option: he had had to get even.

“Merasmus, don’t ask dumb questions.”

Despite the anger welling up inside him, he held his composure. In his head he rattled off a list of all the ways he could punish the Soldiers for their insufferable idiocy. Finally he had an idea. A very devious idea. And he didn’t care who would be caught in the cross fire.

“Say, isn’t it time the two of you went to work? It would be _such a shame_ for you to risk being court-martialled for tardiness.”

Both Soldiers shared a glance before rushing out the kitchen to get their uniforms and weapons. Merasmus sighed and tried to shoo the raccoons off the table in an effort to clear some space to have a few slices of toast and coffee, lots and lots of coffee. His only response though was a collection of harsh hisses and snarls as the raccoons stayed firmly in their place. After several minutes of waiting for the kettle to boil and staring at the raccoons in despair, Merasmus heard the front door slamming against the wall (no doubt making the already large holes in the wall even bigger).

“Goodbye Merasmus! We are leaving the house now!” Merasmus looked up and replied in a sing-song voice.

“ _Goodbye!_ ”

 

He took his cup of coffee and made his way to his alchemy laboratory. After passing row upon row of dusty towering bookcases he reached the heart of his study. He opened and searched through the remnants of the potions left scattered about his cabinet. He chuckled, as he mused what their effects would be on their rodent thieves.

He found the one he wanted and an evil, satisfied grin spread across his face.

“Ey, guy! What ya gonna do with that?”

The wizard turned to the voice coming from a near-by pedestal, before he walked up to a large marble arch engraved with a mixture of intricate and detailed symbols and skulls. He waved a hand in front of centre and green sparks flew from his fingers. A pool of emerald green liquid suspended from the middle of the arch and spread to the edges, flowing smoothly until the water-like substance settled. An image began to appear in the arch, only somewhat distorted by the liquid. The image showed a worn battle field, with two bases on either side coloured in a trade mark blue and red.

“What am I going to do with this you ask? Well,” He held the glimmering vial tighter in his hand.

“we’re going to have a lot of _fun_.”

The book roared with laughter and shook violently on its stand.

"Oh-ho, this is is gonna be good!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: things get weird and more... monstery.  
>  Also the future chapters will be longer than this.
> 
> I'd like to thank my bestie for coming up with the name for this story :3


	2. "Coo"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Medic just can't catch a break

Three days had passed since the mercs on both RED and BLU came back from their week long break. They had all been stationed at Recherché Fields for a while, and even though the battlefield was odd compared to most, it wasn’t a though they weren’t used to the lay of the land by now. On the Monday everything had been fine, just like it normally was; everyone was only a little bit rusty and back to their best in merely a few hours. However, Tuesday saw the beginnings of the noticeable little irritations. By Wednesday, people began to falter.

 

The battle that day had gone well into overtime, both teams had been fighting over the central control point for hours with neither side gaining control nor advancing onto another point. 2 hours after they were due to finish, the battle finally ended in a stalemate.

The RED team trudged into locker room. Exhausted, they sloppily dumped their weapons into their holders. A few of them collapsed to the floor, the Demoman with an undignified ‘thwump’ as he fell flat on his face whilst the Sniper and Pyro slumped onto the benches on either side of the room. All the others made their way deeper into the base, probably looking for a warm soothing shower or a soft spot to simply rest and recover. At least, that’s what Medic mused. Unfortunately _he_ didn’t have the luxury to rest, and went straight to his Medibay to finish off some paperwork from this morning.

He turned the lights on with the main set of switches by the double doors but recoiled under the sudden intensity as they flickered into life. As he walked closer to his desk he was greeted by a series of coos from his beloved birds, no doubt starved for attention and itching to be free and fly out and about the lab. Reaching down under the large cage, he grabbed a bag of half-used birdseed and yawned deeply. As soon as he opened the cage a flurry of doves flew out, landing on various make shift perches throughout the lab. Medic chuckled as he watched them but turned to his shoulder when he felt a slight tugging sensation in his hair.

“Archimedes…” he raised his left hand and gently petted the blood-stained dove.

“Don’t worry, I’m refilling your food bowl right now.”

“ _Coo_ ” Medic opened the packet and began to fill the small troughs in the cage.

“Don’t give me that! I know you well enough by now that you only ever act this cute when you want something.”

_“Coo”_

Medic sighed, which merely trigged another long, deep yawn. His vision blurred momentarily and the room began to spin. He quickly removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes as he made his way to the chair in front of his desk. He let his head rest against the desk as he massaged his temples, trying to wait for the dizzy-spell to stop.

“Urgh, I really hope this doesn’t go on much longer. But I honestly don’t know what the cause of it all is Archimedes.”

“ _Coo_ ” Medic cautiously turned his head to look at Archimedes who in turn cocked his own head to the side to mirror his master.

“It makes no sense… I’m exhausted. I don’t have an ounce of energy left in me. Yet when I try to go to sleep I just… can’t. And these dizzy-spells, they’re just strange, it’s not as if I’m not drinking enough.” Archimedes inched closer to his master’s face and nuzzled against it, before bedding down beside Medic’s cheek. Medic stared at Archimedes with heavy eyes, he watched as Archimedes’ chest rose and fell, heard his tiny (yet surprisingly strong) heart beat and he swore he could even _feel_ his…

 

“I haven’t gotten any sleep since Sunday. And now I have to deal with… this.” He sat up, slowly, and shuffled through the papers which had become crumpled under the weight of his face.

“3 separate instances of, well what I can only assume are, rashes. Yet there is no visible indication of any rash, just the itching. It’s odd. On top of that Sniper is even complaining about a persistent ‘burning’ feeling in his legs. I’ve checked the logs Archimedes, Sniper hasn’t even encountered the BLU Pyro once this week and he hasn’t complained about it before now either. I just- I just _don’t know_ Archimedes.”

“ _Coo”_

Medic looked from Archimedes, then to the papers in his hand and then back to Archimedes. He sighed.

“Perhaps you are right, I’m not going to be able to do anything of use if I can barely stay awake.”

Medic shuffled his papers into a neat pile and neatly tucked his chair back under his desk. He began walking to the back of the lab, where his preferred cot and cosy little living quarters were, when all of a sudden the infirmary doors burst open and sent all the doves flying skyward from their perches.

 

“DOC! Ya gotta help us! There’s something wrong with Demo.”

Sniper staggered through the doors with Demoman’s arm wrapped and held tight against his shoulder. Demo was writhing around in Sniper’s grasp and desperately clawing at his arm in an attempt to make Sniper let go of him. His one visible eye was screwed shut and he grimaced in pain.

“Help me get him up on the table, schnell!” Medic quickly grabbed Demo’s legs and together they hoisted him onto the gurney.

“Hold him still Sniper!” Sniper gave a nod and obeyed, grabbing Demo’s arms and holding him as still as he could. Medic was busy readying the modified Quick-fix that hung above the operating table and was only half paying attention to Demo’s affliction.

“Arrgh! MEDIC!”

Medic snapped, and finally looked at the man on the table before him. Demo stared at Medic with his lone eye, but instead of being met with the usual brown iris, Demo’s entire eye glowed a bright emerald green. For a second Medic thought that his unearthly glowing eye could have been a result of Demoman using his possessed sword, the Eyelander. That is, until he noticed the rest of his body. Whatever was afflicting Demoman, Medic was sure of one thing: the Medigun wouldn’t be able to fix this.

Green smoke emanated from his eye and flowed over his entire body, engulfing every exposed patch of skin. Despite Sniper trying to hold him still, Demo was frantically scratching at every inch of his body. Medic was baffled by the sight before him. The smoke was getting thicker, Demo’s hands were turning a dark grey colour and looked as if they were becoming rock-hard. He cried in agony. Rapidly hundreds of little black nubs sprouted from his skin and his clothes began to tear at the seams. Sniper winced and his own hands started to shake, he fought against every instinct he had that was screaming at him to let go.

“DOC HELP HIM!”

Medic awoke from his daze, panic gripping his every fibre. This wasn’t science. This wasn’t a flesh wound that could the Medigun could just regenerate. This situation was beyond him. But he couldn’t simply stand by and do nothing, his teammate, his _friend_ was in pain and he was the only one who had even the most remote chance of helping him. He steeled his resolve, flicked the switch on the Medigun and set it on Demoman. He didn’t really think it would help, but it wasn’t as if it would make things any worse, right?

 

Demo gasped the moment the, usually cool, beam hit him, before he bellowed a haunting wail. The beam amplified an intense heat radiating within his muscles, and the emerald mist consumed his entire form. The mist curled up Sniper’s arms and he immediately jumped back from the gurney, he tripped over his legs and fell flat on his back. He grasped wildly at the airless nothingness that had started to spread over his own body, wrapping around his legs and making its way upward. Sniper clutched at his throat as the smoke filled his mouth and welled beneath his eyes, he gasped for air that wouldn’t come and frenziedly thrashed his legs that felt like they’d been set on fire.

Medic had dashed to the switch as soon as he’d seen Demo react to the beam, but it hadn’t been enough. Now he was dealing with two patients under the effects of a mysterious mist that seemed to be choking and contorting them, with even less of a clue as to what to do to help them.

Demo jerked up from the table with a start. The smoke surrounding him turned into a thick, sickly green colour and spread out from his back, forming two large arm-like appendages. For a moment the smoke blurred the outline of Demo’s body, before glowing an even brighter, neon shade of green. He slumped forward and let out a long sigh of relief as the smoke finally dissipated around him.

 

“Ach, me bloody head. I feel so dizzy.” Demo lifted his right hand and began rubbing his head. He looked up at Medic, who was frozen on the spot with a look of horror plastered across his face.

“What?”

Medic didn’t take his eyes off Demo, he started fumbling around for something on a tray near-by. He found what he was looking for and handed it to Demo who took it, despite being utterly confused by the whole exchange. He looked down to find a small hand mirror, and the creature inside it that mimicked his every move.

“Bloody hell! What is-?! Is that ME?!” Medic nodded silently. Demo used the mirror and got a good look at himself.

His face and neck were covered in ebony feathers and he had a matching silver beak in place of his mouth and nose. His ears had moved slightly higher up his head and instead of their usual shape, they looked almost cat-like. Looking down at his hands- if you could even call them that now- he saw hard skin with a grey colouring and black talons at his fingertips. His gaze moved to his legs, which had thoroughly torn his trousers and ripped his boots to shreds. His feet had doubled in size and were covered in fur. A twitch shivered down his back and he turned around to find a pair of large wings tucked up against his back.

“Ah. So… I’m a griffin then?”

“Ja, it would appear so, but why? What on earth happened to you two?”

“Got about as much clue as you mate. One minute I’m lying on the floor, absolutely knackered, then the next it feels like I’m being stabbed by a thousand knives and I’m dragged here by Sniper. Uh, is he alright by the way?”

The two looked down at Sniper, who was currently passed out on the floor. The thick green smoke was wrapped firmly around his legs and lower torso and was spreading out to extend beyond his feet. Medic looked up to meet Demo’s eyes.

“I have no idea.”

“No idea? Well what are we gonna do Doc? You gotta have some idea as to how to fix us! We can’t have a griffin for a Demoman or God knows whatever Snipe’s gonna be.”

Medic bent down and picked Sniper up with a huff, he walked over to another seldom used hospital bed and gently lowered the marksman down.

“This is obviously not science Demo, this is magic! Which means it’s not my area of expertise. I don’t know what caused this _or_ how to fix it. If anything _you_ should be the one with an idea, you know more about magic and curses than I do. Besides, when I did try to help it only seemed to accelerate whatever this is.”

Demo sighed and gazed at the floor. Carefully, he lowered himself so his feet touched the floor. He held onto the operating table and attempted to steady himself on new legs with a new weight hanging from his back.

“So there’s nothing you can do?”

“Other than make the two of you comfortable as possible and record how these changes have affected you, nein, there is nothing I can do.”

“What are we gonna tell the others?”

Medic frowned and thought for a moment.

“The truth. I will call a meeting and explain the situation calmly. Who knows? Whatever this is may have already affected everyone else and if not, it may only be a matter of time.”

 

A gut-wrenching screech cut through the entire base, followed by panicked scream in retort.

 

“I think ye may just be right about that Doc.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the first of the mercs has turned, but how will the others react? And what caused that scream?
> 
> Now the question is should I continue with how RED is doing or should we see if things are any better at BLU? (Though we will see both at some point.)
> 
> Also I can't seem to think of any titles for these chapters, so suggestions are welcome. And I currently don't have a beta reader, so please tell me if there are any typos or things that don't make sense.


	3. Something's Fishy at BLU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seems as though Blu Spy is having a bad day, it couldn't possibly get any worse though... 
> 
> WARNING for some body horror with transformations in this chapter! I tried to step it up a bit. 
> 
> \-----  
> Hi all. Now I know it's been a really long time since the last chapter, and first and foremost I would like to apologise for the wait! 3: I had a lot of stuff going on irl, such as AS Exams, A Level coursework, writter's block, a lot of art I wanted to do, an idea for another story, as well as my Granddad dieing earlier this year. So a lot of things got in the way of this chapter, but I hope anyone who is still interested in this story will like this.

The BLU Spy sat on the floor and lent his back against the refreshingly cool concrete wall of the locker room. He had already removed his blue pinstriped jacket as soon as the battle ended, but still he felt incredibly hot. The match hadn’t gone particularly well for anyone, but for the BLU Spy it seemed as though it had been his worst one yet. He’d only managed 2 backstabs the entire day and even then, they had both been on the RED Soldier when he’d had to stop and take a breather for some reason.

Spy himself had needed to take frequent breaks throughout the day (mostly using his Cloak and Dagger to go off and secretly sit with the Sniper) and he had even had severe difficulty breathing at times. Even now as he rested each breath was laboured and scratched at his throat, not to mention the incessant itching on his arms, occasional sharp pains in his legs and the several odd sores he’d discovered on his sides. He thought about trying to make his way to the infirmary to get Medic to have a look and patch him up, but if the way he had been acting at the end of the battle was any indication Medic was probably still in a foul mood. It was odd. These past few days it seemed as though Medic had snapped at anyone (even Heavy) who had even _attempted_ to talk to him, never mind asking something of him. So Spy simply sighed and decided to just work through it himself. Whatever he had didn’t seem life-threatening and even if it was, it could easily be fixed by respawn.

“Is Spy alright?” He looked up to see his team’s Heavy looming over him with a look of concern on his face.

“Qui, I am fine mon ami.” Heavy crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

“Spy does not look ‘fine’.” Spy smiled for a brief moment before he was suddenly overcome by a coughing fit. He tried his best to steady his breathing but there was nothing he could do; his throat just felt so dry.

“Here, you need drink.” A bottle of water appeared in front of Spy and he quickly snatched it out of Heavy’s hand. The soothing water poured down his throat as he hastily guzzled its entire contents. He let out a sigh of relief and gently set the bottle on the floor beside him.

“Merci. I suppose I am not feeling completely fine after all.” Spy chuckled weakly but Heavy still looked concerned.

“You are not only one Spy, whole team seems unwell, even myself.”

“Oh?” Spy’s curiosity was peaked.

“Is nothing, probably just a cold or something. Is an easy thing to go around.” Heavy’s eyes darted away from the Spy as he spoke, a small tell he was hiding something more.

“Of course…” He didn’t want to press the issue and risk angering the large Russian, especially in a weakened state.

“Would you mind lending me a hand?” Spy croaked. He smiled weakly as he lifted his hand out. The taller man looked down on him, Spy looked much paler than usual. Swiftly, Heavy helped bring him to a stand and steadied him as he wobbled and found his footing.

“Thank you.” Spy threw his jacket over his shoulder and began to walk out of the room.

“You are sure you will be alright? I can make Medic look at you if you want.” Spy grimaced and tightly clung onto the doorframe as a sharp pain rushed through his chest. When it subsided he turned round to face Heavy.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I’m sure all I need is a good night’s sleep.” Heavy opened his mouth to say something, but before he could the Spy had already walked out the door and disappeared into the base. The Russian sighed. He knew how fruitless it would be to look for a spy that didn’t want to be followed, even if he did have a good idea where he’d go. He made his own way to leave the room, but hesitated just as he passed the re-supply cabinet. He felt a twitch of nerves in his legs, trailed by a slight tingling of pins and needles.

 

\--------------------

 

Spy hastily turned the lock on his bedroom door as he entered, and tossed his jacket onto the bed. He rubbed his strained eyes and made his way to the bathroom, kicking off his shoes as he passed his wardrobe.

He removed his gloves as he began to fill the sink with cold water. With a vice-like grip he held onto rim, steadying himself as his legs began to shake slightly under his weight. For the first time that day he was able to get a good look at himself in the mirror; his skin was deathly pale and was in stark contrast with the dark bags under his eyes. Maybe Heavy was right, he did look pretty ill after all.

His eyes felt irritated and he rubbed them once more, but in doing so he only seemed to aggravate them further. He splashed his face and tried to clear his vision. Looking down at his hands he noticed something odd. They looked almost… blueish? Had he bruised them without realising? Cautiously he touched the back of his hand, expecting a twinge of pain, but instead he felt nothing. Confusion rose inside him, off the top of his head he couldn’t think of any illness that would make his hands _blue_. He gently rubbed the back of his hand, noting it felt dry and not as smooth as usual.

Suddenly his hand began to itch. He scratched at it lightly, but increased his intensity as the itch grew stronger. As he frantically clawed at his hand the sky blue pigment changed to a deeper dark colour and began to spread past his wrist, engulfing his entire forearm. He had been focusing entirely on what was happening his left arm to notice that his right had been changing in the same way as well. He stared at both his arms in shock with a morbid curiosity. His fingers shook and felt unbearably hot. Clenching his hands into fists he attempted in vain to regain control and stop whatever was happening. All of a sudden he felt the skin between his fingers being pulled taut, almost as if someone was pinching them. He gingerly re-opened his hands and spread his fingers wide apart.

He retched at the sight.

A thin layer of opaque skin stretched between each digit, it almost looked like –no- it _was_ webbing. His hands had become _webbed_.

But _why?_ What on earth was happening to him? This wasn’t some mundane illness anymore, but what _was_ it?

 

Looking up to the mirror he caught a glimpse of his eyes. He gazed deeply at the mesmerising pair of eyes before him. Moving as close to the mirror as was humanly possible he lent a hand on the surface, now clawed fingertips tapping against his reflection. He was mere inches from the image of himself, focusing on nothing but his altered eyes. They were no longer their natural grey-blue but instead a fluorescent yellow with flecks emerald green, and his pupils had dilated to thin cat-like slits.

He felt a familiar tickle in his throat and gagged as it dried out once again. Spy rubbed his neck and wheezed more and more with each breath, he thought that his windpipe would seal up at any moment.

Without warning there was a shooting pain in his hips. He gasped instantly and arched his back as his muscles spasmed. His legs began to wobble again, only this time he wasn’t paying enough attention to them to stop himself from falling to the bathroom floor. A deep burning emanated from the core of his legs and rose through every layer of tissue, making them feel almost like they’d been set on fire by a pyro. There was a loud crack, and with it he lost the remaining feeling in his legs. He tried to make sense of what was happening but he could hardly concentrate as he continually gasped for even the smallest breath. The edge of his vison began to darken, he vaguely made out what seemed like a cutting feeling in his legs, like they were being sliced and pulled apart by some unknown force. As he choked for air one last time he tightly clutched at his collar bone; a desperate final attempt to escape asphyxiation.

 

His vision faded to black.

 

\--------------------

 

Scout decided it would be best if he just went straight to his room that evening.

 

As he passed Spy’s room he heard something rather strange… but he chose to ignore it. He’d been told that Spy hadn’t been feeling well today, and Scout knew (from personal experience) that a spy in a bad mood was not one to mess with. So he continued to his room, casually shutting his door with a swift kick.

He took a deep breath, smelling the familiar stuffy air that filled his room. It was just like home.

Walking over to the window he looked over some of his trinkets on his shelf, including his favourite one, a rare baseball card that his older brother had given him. It would be a little while until dinner was ready, since it was Pyro’s turn to cook, so Scout thought he’d just read a magazine for a bit or maybe go out for a jog later. He was sure he’d have enough time. Pyro seemed to like to take their time when they made dinner, which was fine for the most part because often what Pyro made seemed akin to a gourmet meal, but then there were those meals you’d get every now and then where the whole thing would be burn to a crisp. (Even the plate could be a little charred.)

Scout went to pick up his latest baseball magazine off his desk, but paused when he took a glance out the window. It was funny really, he’d never noticed before how bright the moon was but now it seemed incredibly illuminated.  He looked away, and hovered his hand over the magazine. Of all the bases he’d been stationed at, this one and Double Cross seemed to have the weirdest working hours. Sure, you didn’t have to get up at an ungodly hour in the morning, but it was still very taxing to work until 10:30 at night and it messed up your sleep routine too. Instead of picking up his magazine, he turned back to stare at the moon. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t turn away from it. But why on Earth was the moon so freaking interesting tonight?

A tingle ran down his spine.

He shuddered, suddenly feeling hot under the collar. Beads of sweat started to run down his forehead. He went to wipe them away with his hand but jumped back with a start. It shock fiercely, as large black spots began to grow on the palm of his hand. They covered the entire palm and extended to his fingers, he could feel the skin there become tighter and harder. All along his arms and legs he could feel itchy pins and needles, as hair began to rapidly sprout from every inch of bare skin. He could hear his bones clicking and feel them moving in every different part of his body. As he heard a deafeningly loud crack from his legs he collapsed to the floor. Panting on his hands and knees, heat radiated from limb, every fibre of his being and it just kept getting hotter and hotter; he felt as though his blood was going to boil. 

A wave of pain flooded through him and he squeezed his eyes shut. There was another set of cracking in his legs. His muscles spasmed as they were stretched and contorted, limbs protesting against the unnatural strain they were being put under. Just as he heard a loud rip (of either his trousers or skin, he wasn’t sure) he let out a long scream of anguish.    

In a brief respite from the agony he opened his eyes. Green mist surrounded him and his body, it was so thick that he couldn’t even see anything but the floor in his room. It consumed him and seeped into every part of him.

 A deep gurgle emanated from his throat and his head ached so strongly he thought it would split.  His face burnt and itched profusely as it too contorted with the rest of his body. Steadily the groans of pain transformed from human to animalistic growls.  Features on his face shifted and distorted, his spine burned at its base, and it seemed as though something near there exploded out of him.

With one final powerful tremor that ran through his body, Scout let out a monstrous roar before collapsing to the floor.  

 

Scout laid there, panting heavily with exhaustion from his painful and disorienting ordeal. All of a sudden the door to his room burst open and slammed against the wall with a loud bang. The Demoman ran into the room with a look of anger and confusion mixed on his face.

“What the bloody hell is going on in-!!” The Scot paused as he saw Scout (or what he assumed was Scout) lying on the floor in the middle of his room. His face fell, leaving only a look of pure horror.

“…here. Scout? Wha-? W-what on Earth happened to you?”

Scout turned to him and groaned as he slowly sat up. Their eyes met; a single brown eye to a pair of luminescent blues with thin cat-like pupils. Scout made a move to stand up but stopped when Demo was taken aback by fear.

“Scout, is that you? Are you still in there?” Demo asked with a shaking voice.

“Yeah pal… It’s still me. I think.” Scout’s voice sounded frail and he made a harsh growling cough after he spoke. Demo cautiously walked more into the room again, closer to Scout, but still keeping a safe distance from the now monstrous boy.

“What are you?”

Scout paused and inspected his body. He was covered in fur that had an odd pattern to it, his hands were now clawed, his ears were higher and more animal-like, and as he looked behind himself he saw a long fairly thin yet slightly bushy tail. He thought for a moment before looking at the window again, the black sky now covered in thick streaks if clouds. This had all started after he had looked out the window and seen the full moon, then he had changed, and now he was some kind of animal-hybrid. Thanks to his extensive knowledge of horror movies from many a movie marathon, he knew exactly what had happened and what he now was.

“I guess I’m a werewolf! Wow, that’s actually kind of cool. You know, besides all the uncontrollable rages and stuff.”

Demo ventured even closer, and after a good long minute of calming himself down and looking Scout over, he found a flaw with Scout’s conclusion.

“I dinnae think you’re a wolf Scout… You don’t look anything like one. If anything you look more like some kind of cat...” Scout looked offended and immediately tried to stand up to get at eye height with Demo. After a fair deal of wobbling and nearly falling over a couple of times, he stood on the balls of his feet and found a good enough balance.

“That’s impossible! What else could I be?!” Demo took a step back from the boy and tried speaking in a calming manner to keep Scout from being angered.

“Well, there are _other_ types of were-creature Scout, you might simply be a different one.”

“Oh yeah? And how would you know?” Scout growled. 

“Well I do have a fairly decent knowledge of the supernatural, in fact my cousin once had a job cleaning in a wizard’s ca-”

A bellowing shout from the other side of the base stopped Demo mid-sentence, causing him to look at Scout quizzically.

“Hey, what you looking at me for? I didn’t do nothing!”

“Maybe not, but unless this-” Demo said as he gestured towards Scout.

“-is something you’ve been hiding for a while, my gut is telling me that you’re not the only supernatural we’re gonna find tonight. Now come on.”

Demo quickly walked out of the room and tried to follow the vague direction of the shout. Scout did his best to follow as hurriedly as he could, but he was uncoordinated with his new legs and kept tripping over himself. He used one hand on the wall to try and keep his balance as he got closer to the Scotsman.

“Hey Demo! Wait up!”

 The Scot sighed and, ironically, slowed down his pace so the speedster could catch up. The pair walked in tandem, one hobbling along with the aid of the wall all the way to the source of the noise: The respawn room.

There were noises coming from inside, it sounded almost like someone who was struggling to fight in a tense struggle. They waited outside the room, both hesitant to enter considering there was a potential monster of unknown hostility and power on the other side of the door. Another cry of pain emanated from the room, and Scout winced with familiar empathy. Within a few moments rapid foot falls came from corridors on either side of them, with Sniper coming from one way and a livid looking Medic from the other. As soon as Sniper saw Scout he skidded to a halt a couple feet away, horrified and shocked by what he was seeing. Medic however only stopped his seething for a moment to look mildly confused, before shaking his head and restoring his furious expression on his face. His angered gaze landed on Demo and Scout and cut through them like a knife.

“What is going on here?! Who’s shouting?!”

“Well, you are Doc.” Scout joked. Demo slapped him on the back of his head to let him know that now was not the time to be messing with Medic, but he received a low growl in response. Demo thought it was best for all of them to change the subject back to the matter at hand.

“We don’t know. All I know is that I heard a commotion from Scout’s room, found him like this, and then we heard something else coming from the respawn room. We came here as quick as possible but, given how I found Scout, I didn’t think we should just go barrelling in there.”

Sniper inched closer to the rest of the group, his eyes not leaving Scout for a second.

“And how did _this_ even happen to Scout?” 

“Beats me pal, just saw the moon then boom! Now I’m this.”

Medic huffed in frustration, and pushed his way past Demo in front of the door.

“We can find out why this is happing later! Right now there’s either a teammate in distress or an uncontrollable monster in here, and I for one am going to find out which before something bad happens.”  

Using all his strength he threw the large door open which slammed into the wall, and he made his way in. The rest of them followed in warily, but all froze as soon as they saw something massive and shrouded in green mist on the floor in the centre of the room. The vapour dissipated, revealing a huge body lying on the floor and breathing heavily. The lower half appeared to belong to a light brown horse, with pale cream coloured, feathered legs, whilst the top half was human and wore a bright blue shirt with a black vest.

“Heavy!” Medic ran over and kneeled in front of him, checking him over and trying to take everything about the strange situation in.

“Are you alright?”

Heavy groaned with effort as he tried to ‘sit up’. Medic lent him a hand to help pull him up as his lower half twisted and moved to have all of his legs neatly beneath him.

“I… do not know. I feel… strange.” Heavy held out his arms slightly to try and keep his balance, with Medic staying right by him and hovering close to him to help his friend if the need arose. With a morbid curiosity Heavy felt around behind himself and started examining his new edition.

“What the…?”  

 

Sniper looked at Heavy with an expression of utter disbelief, before looking at Scout, and then finally the rest of his team.

“Someone please tell me this is all some hallucination or crazy dream I’m havin’ from one of Pyro’s insanely spicy chilli’s?”  

Heavy looked down at his new lower limbs before looking back up at Sniper.

“Believe me, I wish it was.”

“But… but…” Sniper stuttered.

“Alright, everyone listen up-” Demo interjected, as he made his way to the front of the group.

“obviously _something_ supernatural is going on here, and none of us have any idea why, but we can’t let this all go to our heads. We need to be smart about this. It’ll all go to pot if we start turning on each other. We need ta get everyone together and figure out as much about this as we can. ‘Right?”

The rest looked around at one another and nodded silently.

“Alright then. Sniper, you go find Engie and Pyro. I’ll go find Soldier and Spy. Medic, you take Heavy and Scout to the mess hall, the rest of us will meet you there.”

With Demo’s words, he and Sniper left the respawn room. Leaving Scout, Heavy and Medic to look amongst each other awkwardly. Scout chuckled and rubbed the back of his head nervously.

“What a crazy day, huh?”


End file.
